The City of Irvine is officially California’s police department introduced its shabby new Tesla Cybertruck released to the public on Tuesday in the creepiest way possible: a silly video with theme music from “The Terminator,” a franchise that famously portrays cops in a bad light.
First discovered by GizmodoIrvine police posted videos on Twitter and Facebook present the truck. In the one-minute video, the sphincters are tensed just as you would expect. It shows the Cybertruck rolling to the Terminator theme music. For some reason, there is smoke that the Cybertruck has to drive through before the truck stops, and is joined by Irvine police officers who pose awkwardly with the truck while smiling like a cyborg. The video ends with custom thunder and lightning graphics created for the truck that read “Irvine Police Cybertruck.” I guess we should all say “Hell yeah!” at this point.
The Irvine Police Department reiterates the department’s argument that it spent well over six figures on this electric pickup truck. In the video description, the department states that the truck is used for community engagement, specifically supporting officers through the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.
The truck will support our DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program and community outreach. While the fully equipped vehicle will not be used as a patrol vehicle, it can respond to emergencies and assist the community when needed. For over three decades, our DARE employees have been driving attention-grabbing and unique vehicles that continue to attract attention and inspire students.
Although the department said it would serve community engagement, the truck was controversial. Already in September, public records showed the department spent over $150,000 on the electric truck. Things didn’t look much better when it also emerged that the department was trying to keep it Exact purchase amount secret. And not everyone believes the department’s argument that the truck serves community engagement. Some experts believe that the money spent on the Cybertruck and its law enforcement modifications should have actually been spent on the community.
The fact that the truck is part of the DARE program doesn’t help matters either. As Gizmodo pointed out, Studies have shown The program doesn’t work. It also doesn’t look like Irvine PD actually received the appropriate license to use the “Terminator” music in the video; The department said in a statement to Gizmodo: “The video was used on our social networks and the music was attributed to the artist.” Given the public backlash, this abhorrent video, and possible copyright infringement, it looks like this Cybertruck will be in favor the department is already proving to be less of a plus point and more of a headache.
This story originally appeared on Jalopnik, our sister site, on Wednesday, October 9th.
